Finding Jay!

“In nature, nothing happens by chance”… Aristotle

In just few words the great philosopher explains so many things about nature; recently a topic related to nature which has taken wild lifers across the country by storm made me remember this quote! It’s about a tiger named Jay which has gone missing from forest in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra! All over social media as well in field i.e. in forests, a search has been carried out, probably the biggest till now for any animal including NGO’s, forest officers, college student, villagers & even police department too! A group of wild life photographers named CLAW, on FB with nearly fifty thousand members have even announced prize of Rs 50,000, just to give some concrete information/evidence about Jay’ s existence i.e. image capture or whereabouts in any form of last seen types. Here many will wonder, what’s big deal in one tiger has gone missing? As what difference one tiger makes in a country which has nearly two thousand of them! And then every day, don’t we read every day such news about tigers or some wild animals getting killed for hundreds of reasons which includes right from poaching to road accident to fights over territory & what not! So one more tiger has gone missing & his name is Jay, that’s all!

Well, I don’t blame all those ignorant souls as most of them are from cities or towns who have already enough of day to day problems in their own survival, so you can’t expect them to add one more worry by caring for a missing tiger that too is some distant forest! Yet for those who are wondering what’s so much of fuss & who is this Jay, I will throw some light on the back ground. Those of us who goes regularly to National Parks or call it Project Tigers which are reserved forests of our country such as Kanha Tiger Park or Tadoba Andhari Tiger Park or Ranthambore or Corbet to name a few & mostly in news for various reasons. At the same time there are many small Project Tiger Parks also, these are lesser known yet popular amongst wild lifers. Project Tiger is concept launched way back in 1972 to protect & conserve tiger population in our country indirectly conserving forests around the tigers. Its reserved part of forests, spread across the country by virtue of which forest department gets many rights to conserve wild life especially keeping tiger at apex & thus govt can ensure conservation of tigers along with other species in these forests. This has been very useful as started with hardly twelve Project Tiger Parks, now there are nearly some fifty plus such sanctuaries or parks under Project Tiger. For these forests apart from just giving legal powers to concerned forest dept’s, lots of funding also being made available to local govts so as they can use that money for tiger conservation under Project Tiger tag. When I use the term tiger conservation it’s not just tiger in isolation but entire habitat i.e. surrounding in which the tiger survives. It includes forest with flora & fauna as well we need to take care of native people, call them tribes or villagers which resides around the forests in which the tiger lives. As sitting here in Pune in my tenth floor home & say, “I love Tiger” is easy but to live in a mud & thatch hut, near forest where tiger roams freely day & night, then saying “I love Tiger”, not many can do it! So to avoid man animal conflicts, in which defeat of the animals is obvious, is also main job of the forest dept which controls these tiger parks!

I presume now you know what Tiger Parks are & role of forest dept in tiger conservation; of late wild life tourism is new fashion in tourism & with due respect I am using word fashion as going in all above tiger parks with fancy cameras & upload the tiger images on social media is the in thing. With digital cameras no more photography is as tedious job as it was with film role cameras & a lot cheaper too. Though going to safaris of tiger parks is costly affair but now our country has lots of new rich young men which can afford it. Yes there are many going to forests for years & sincerely, as well doing a lot for conservation of wild life along with photography is also true. And this wild life tourism generates lots of revenues for the tiger parks which is being utilized for well being of the forests is also equally important aspect so more & more people should go to forests is what tourism as well forest dept’s thrust all over country’s States. And what better than a tiger as brand ambassador than anybody else, to attract wild lifers as well tourists to the tiger parks! So most parks has an iconic tiger which is like star attraction of that forest, those who are regular visitors of tiger parks must be knowing that Kanha Park has got a tiger named “Munna”, which has lettering  “CAT’ on his forehead in form of black stripes naturally developed. Tadoba has “Baghdoh” named tiger & Ranthambore has “Sultan” which was recently captivated for attacking humans & that too has raised a lot of debate on social media as well mixed reactions. The Corbet has a tigress named “Sharmili” & Pench Tiger Park has legendary tigress named “Collerwali”, she has given birth to nearly eleven cubs in last few years, a great contribution to the park. Badhavgarh Tiger Park was having “B2” & “Charger’, two very big Tigers & Nagzira has got “Dendu” named tiger. Mostly these tiger’s names are given by guides in the forest & named after some person resembling his habits or local name of a spot where that particular tiger roams frequently! Name like “Collerwali” has been given as the tigress is radio collared. In same way the relatively new tiger park in Maharashtra near Nagpur i.e. Umread Kharandla has got a huge tiger male named “Jay” as its star attraction. 

All these above referred tigers got popularity for two reasons amongst the tourists, one is because of their sheer size like Jay & another is somehow they have got used to the tourists & often seen easily making tourists happy for photography; as most tourists visits tiger park to have one glimpse of a tiger & when some particular tiger is seen regularly & easily, then its natural, the said park gets recognition in name of that Tiger! So was the tiger “Jay” for Umread Khrandla wild life sanctuary nicknamed as “USWS”, a huge face with beard & physic supporting to that face & fearless to the visitors cameras, obviously he became the wild lifers delight soon & every social media has image of Jay posted by thousands of visitors of USWS!

But some five months back reports started filtering in, that Jay isn’t being seen at USWS, though for first few weeks everybody thought its normal as male tigers has very big territory i.e. the area of the forest within which they roam. Usually a male tiger has nearly 50sq km to 100sq km area in which he can move for hunting & many a times male tiger can walk 30 km in a day so nothing uncommon if a tiger isn’t getting sighted for a while. Also if it’s behind some tigress for mating then also the tiger prefers privacy, so absence of Jay wasn’t uncommon. But slowly as the days passed & still there was no sighting of Jay, tourists especially the regular ones started getting concerned as Jay was a familiar sight & no one has seen it now for nearly four months which is alarming sign. 

Even forest dept started feeling the heat of inquiries about Jay & social media was full of debate as what has happened to Jay. Many theories are floating as tigers are known to roam from one sanctuary to another especially in Vidarbha region where still some corridors are left. Corridor is a path or patch of land connecting two forests, which wild animals use to travel or migrate from one forest to another. It’s usually non habituated or less used by humans, so the wild animals feel safe to travel through these patches. With increasing urbanization many such corridors have been lost already; because some fifty or sixty years back mostly all parts of India’s forest have been connected via such corridors & animals could travel to long distance making their survival easier. In recent past a tigress from Kanha has travelled nearly 150km & has been found in Pench Tiger Park, so one theory was Jay has travelled to Pench or Tadoba or some nearby parks area. But the forest staff or the locals at these places denies seeing any such big new tiger in their area. Also a tiger of size like Jay isn’t a sight someone will miss as while travelling to such long distance someone is bound to have a sight of his & would have reported is common logic.

On the top of it Jay was radio collared twice; that means forest dept uses a radio collar for special tigers or tigress with cubs so they can monitor its moment or location by radio signals. And in Jays case even the radio collars has been failed & “push the blame” game is on between forest dept & the institute which supervises the work of radio collaring. The said institute even said that the radio collars fails if the animal moves around High tension overhead electric lines, which are a common thing in that area courtesy thermal power plants! Though that’s not being accepted by technical people in the field as if it is so then why other tigers have never came across such fault is the question being asked! One more theory is of poaching but then killing of such tiger isn’t a easy job as well poaching involves participation of locals in most cases, as they only knows the moment zone of a particular tiger & that means involving number of persons & some where someone would have spoken about it. Another theory is natural death, though Jay was too young to die naturally but it can be snake bite or fight with other tiger. Again with the radio collar or without it, the body would have been come to notice in case of such death as forest dept’s personnel are searching every corner of the forest, though it’s a mammoth task!  And a tiger migrates from his forest only if there is shortage of prey or water which wasn’t the case with Jay. 

One more reason for migration of a tiger is too much of interference by villagers making tiger disturbed by their moments, may it be by domestic animals or by their entry in tigers habitats for any reason such as illegal tree cutting! So after failing of every theory about Jay, right from poaching to migration & with no sign of Jay, a serious search has been undertaken for forest dept including with support of NGO’s, probably the biggest till now for any missing wild life animal!

I remember few years back there was a wonderful Disney movie “Finding Nemo’, it was a journey by a father fish all across Pacific Ocean to find his lost son. It was an animation movie but then that’s why it’s possible to find a tiny fish in an ocean, when it come to find a tiger in thousands of sq kms of forest we realize limitations of our technology. Though the Jay missing has definitely shown light to lacuna's of the system which we may call forest dept or govt as why can’t there be network of paid insiders which in police language known as  “khabris”, who will work for forest dept & keep an eye about every outsiders moment in & around tiger parks? Forest dept alone with its limited staff & technology cant keep an eye on entire forest leave apart some tiger, so there has to be a separate cell for vigilance & high time for govt to look in strengthening forest dept if we really care for tigers! Another is air surveillance's & drone cameras to monitor wild life, this may seem far-fetched thought but if we have left with just 2000 odd tigers then they are worth for every expense, is what we should accept. Also we can think of injecting micro chip in animals like tigers to keep track on them, I am no expert on this aspect of electronics but Bond movies does tells us about such gadgets, so why can’t we try them here? At the same time open up entire forest for wild life tourism as wild lifers are like eyes & ears of the forest dept & because of them only the Jay’s absence has been noticed & made the system move to search for him! Due to some Supreme Court judgment only 20% part of tiger parks has been kept open for tourists & that’s why missing wild animals is being let away unnoticed. Can Hon PM, who heads Tiger Protection Cell look in to it & can he move the matter again in Supreme Court, so as it will be a step taken for tiger conservation only? Tourism can be a disturbance to wild life but if properly monitored then keeping numbers of vehicles controlled & with proper man power we can open up entire forests for tourists, as after all it’s us who have divided forest in to zones like core, buffer & tourism; but the tiger looks at it as one forest only!

Lastly today its one Jay which has gone missing & reason may be any but it’s a big loss to wild life, if it happens to be unnatural death! Last year saw deaths of nearly 50 tigers all across the country for various reasons & in most cases human encroachment or conflict was the main cause. On one side we are happy for tiger population increasing & on other side if we can’t control deaths then soon we will be back to square one on front of tiger conservation. As the great thinker has said in the quote, Jay gone missing is not by chance; it’s a warning to us, provided we understand the warning because today its Jay, tomorrow it will be Baghdoh or Collarwali & then entire tiger clan will be vanished from the forests; so before it’s too late, lets gear-up & form a system in place where no Jay will go missing but will grow happily old in his own forest, as that’s what nature is meant for!

--

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2016/07/real-estate-ye-kya-ho-raha-hai.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below) 
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Real Estate; "Ye Kya Ho Raha Hai!"

“I am pretty sure that this is great time to go out & buy a house. And if you do, then in 10 years you’r going to look back & say, ‘ You know I’m glad I listened to Donald Trump’”… Donald Trump

No need to introduce who Mr. Trump is, probably by next year who knows, he will be the first builder to reach at most powerful position in world i.e. USA President & yes this can happen only in USA.  As imagine a builder contesting for Prime Minister’s post in our country; no party can win with that builder tag, though money from real estate is welcome by all parties sure! Leave apart what Mr. Trumps opinion or views are about making USA a pure breed country (take my statement as pure mean USA citizen centric & not Nazi definition of pure), but no one can doubt his success or mastery in real estate; his sheer confidence in real estate is what above quote reflects! Coming to our State’s or say Pune’s real estate, I doubt how many builders can match Trump’s confidence in current status especially about the appreciation which is key word for real estate. As when I look around faces related to real estate most of them remind me character of Tinku Talsaniya from the 90’s famous TV series, “Ye Jo Hai Jindagi”; it’s used to be in always confused mind & with  popular dialogue, “Ye kya ho raha hai!” means “What’s this happening around!”

If you look around in Pune, with due respect to all my fellow developers who won’t like what I am going to say about the scene in real estate, yet keeping myself quite won’t change facts; so first let’s see what’s happening here? Last two years were probably worst in real estate as leave apart rates appreciating there is no much bookings happening; when I say no bookings means the way projects used to get full, most of them right on launching! It was because people use to think if they book at launching rate then in period of two or three years i.e. project completion time, their money would get double, which is the best rate of interest any finance scheme can offer & the genuine buyers also used to book with same fear that if they wait then they will have to shell out double amount. On the top of it the investment remains safe in form of a lock & key form flat or office or shop, again which is something far safer than just some share certificate or FD certificate piece of paper. But what has happened recently has surely not expected by anyone & that’s not about appreciating the price of a home but there is no sale! This is something nobody is able to understand as unsold stock has gone all time high, even with prices not rising as well at some places even decreasing flat prices also sales are not happening. Its alarming as in real estate entire calculations of finances was depending up on only thing i.e. price appreciation; right from land buying to TDR, everywhere people were ready to shell out some extra bucks by thinking that they are going to earn it back at the end.

It’s this tendency of heavy appreciation anticipation which used to reflect in every deal associated with real estate, may it be purchases of material like cement or steel or various Govt agencies earning revenues via hundreds of avenues in form of taxes or premiums, all have the same logic, ’Hey what’s big deal, are you not earning out of every sq ft, so lets us have our cut!” And builders also never minded it as that was fact. I have experienced flat prices rising three fold than the rate at launch, by the time project gets completed & what’s credit of the producer i.e. the builder or the product in this price rise, nothing is the truthful answer! Because it’s just lesser options available in the market, in combination with more demand than supply & somewhere yet affordable to the pockets of the end user in the market. So everyone was happy as whatever rate increase was there yet there was end user in the market who was ready to pay that final price & live in those houses. This was making all segments associated with real estate, right from financers to suppliers & in end the builder happy with the profit margins which no one was keeping even track & as it’s said, no reasoning is necessary when you are successful, so no one was interested in finding why it’s happening! Though it’s a fool’s logic in my opinion, as rather its success only which should be analyzed if you want to repeat it, but then the real estate has never had shortage of fools, only thing is under the mask of heavy appreciation in pricing, the true faces never got revealed! Nobody was neither interested in trying to know what is real market’s need nor trying to find out newer means of reaching out to the customers or new construction techniques as everything was being sold without doing any of this! The race to acquire land was on rampant amongst the developers & many even started quoting double for the land per sq ft in comparison to the present market rate, just by keeping in mind the flat rates three years down the line! Even private financers too were also happy to fund real estate developers as “do saalme double” i.e. “get assured double return on principal amount”, was the key word in private financers! The bankers also were happy as home finance became prime lending business for every bank; in general all happy happy scenes were around! It’s like Gold Rush in California & everyone wanted to become a builder, this happened not in just Pune but mostly with all the cities or Metros in State at least!

No one has foreseen what’s coming but slowly inquiries stopped, pre launch bookings dried up, terms like luxurious or spacious flat being considered as taboo by the flat buyers, clients flow got reduced to such extent that even a full page news paper advertise which costs nearly a million rupees wasn’t generating even fifty odd callers & then suddenly alarm bells started ringing in real estate. The after effects were in form of payment delays to contractors & suppliers, request letters of rescheduling of loan repayments from developers flooded at banks & in response banks curtailed new finances to real estate, private financers were worried about their investments as mostly it was insecure & was on trust. Worst hit were flat holders who have booked the flats as possession dates got prolonged for indefinite time & complaints of angry flat holders went till Hon Chief Minister & he has to issue a circular via police dept to deal with such complaints! Suddenly real estate was no dearer to anybody & everybody started asking “Ye kya ho raha hai!”

In all such scenario many people who are associated with real estate asks my opinion that when there will be good time again for real estate? I am no wizard or master of real estate, as there are far wiser & bigger names to comment yet being in the field for nearly 25 years now, though most of it is related to site, yet what I feel is this was going to happen some or other day. Agreed real estate still is money spinning business worldwide yet the margins was bound to hit the peak, especially in certain cities or pockets. Here after there will be constant demand for homes in Pune no doubt about it but the margins won’t be ever like they used to be. Like any other industry this industry too need to fix its margins or returns & learn to work within those margins. And for that one needs to understand changed rule of games; here after the developers will have to study the market more closely including buyers numbers as well what they actually want & more importantly deliver what they want. No need to rush for every land deal as its last piece of land available on earth, rather the Govt seems to have understood one thing; if they want to make home affordable to common man then they need to cut down the huge profit margins in real estate & for that control the ever increasing land rates. And how you do it; the answer lies in two folds, first increase land potential of existing lands under residential zone, increase FSI, flood more TDR like means. Second is convert more & more land in residential or buildable zone, this may have impact on environment or biodiversity but that’s different topic. With this action plan let’s understand one thing there will be more supply than demand means more options for the home buyers, which wasn’t the case earlier. No more people will be rushing to some individual project or a particular location but they will have options to choose from. Importance will be given to location always but premium for the location won’t be as per what builders claim but as per what the buyers feel right. At the same time more new buyers are migrants to the city so they are not worried even if they stay a bit outside of the city centers as budget also is going to play major role. This doesn’t mean they will adjust to any location far off from work place but they won’t surely pay extra high for just being near to so called city centers like Deccan or MG Road types.

Then comes luxuries of life, let’s accept the super rich were always there in the market with loads of money & they will get what they want but that niche will be too small & getting smaller. More & more people buying home will look after a deal giving value for money & here is where every extra rupee spend from the pocket of the developer is directly will be dent in margin! So right from the land rate to material purchases to finance costs in the form of interest to marketing techniques, the real estate developer will need to change the attitude towards the business. A through professionalism is a must now & on the top of it the developer need to transparent to his customers as well stay committed. More clients will prefer to wait as no more rates are increasing so they can afford to wait & then book once the construction is at least half way complete. This means increased finance costs again but at the same time once the building is visible then it will attract customers on its own is also true so finish up the work as early as possible. No need to start thousand flats at a time but you can plan ten phases of hundred flats; this can be one of strategies. Give a clear message to the land lords no more term dictation by them & certainly gone are the days of down payments. Be careful for what kind of JV’s you enter in land deals & with whom! Same is with private financers, it’s high time that the margins in itself will be here after 18% to 20% so a strict no, to the higher rates finance & look for cheaper finance. Try to find new avenues to reach out for customers & it may be finding marketing partners as well making existing customers your salesmen. Tapping different groups may it be community wise or profession or job wise can be a win win option for both i.e. developer as well clients.

Lastly, think of diversifying in other fields like start ups with the excess money if at all you are generating as creating one more source of income can be helpful. But in doing that again get the basic knowledge you are investing in as most of the real estate guys have miserably failed in every venture other than real estate is history. Remember, as the great Trump said real estate is going to be here forever but to enjoy the fruits you need to assure that you are also going to stay afloat; for that feet on ground & head on shoulder is the Mantra which old wise men have told & high time to follow it for the builders!

--

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below) 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

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Smart City's Ugly Traffic Scene!

“City life is stressful. Everybody is running around like crazy, stuck in traffic jams trying to make meetings, trying to make ends meet, trying to meet deadlines, trying to get kids to and from activities. There aren't enough hours in the day for all this business”… Rebecca Pidgeon

Rebecca Pidgeon is a British-American actress and singer-songwriter. She has maintained a recording career while also acting on stage and in feature films. She is married to the American writer and director David Mamet. Hollywood actors/actresses one thing I respect always about them is most of them are well read & good thinkers too! I rarely have come across wisdom quotes from our very Desi Bollywood actors, that’s why I am saying this; look at the quote by Rebecca, out of her all concerns regarding city life, one thing is common here in Pune & that’s Traffic! While we as city were in race for Smart City, most citizens concern was traffic & I don’t blame them!

I myself travel every day from Baner road which connects city center to western part of city i.e. Hinjawadi IT park & even Mumbai-Bangalore bypass too! I  have done so at every hour of the day in last many years & with each passing day the travel within the city is becoming more irritating, frustrating, sorry & what not! I really want to understand, when we say a city is growing then what it means exactly? Is it just its creating more jobs or more revenue for the civic body of the city or big industries & IT parks getting started or more Start Ups, which is a buzz word right now? I think it’s how the city is making its citizens comfortable in their day to day life is what really meaning of city growing & on that account why me, but ask any citizen & he will say even the basic thing like daily travels within the city also becoming nightmare, leave apart improving the life! Unfortunately we are taking increased population is the simple criteria as growing when its city but what about quality level of this ever increasing population? We proudly read the figures that this is the city with maximum numbers of two wheelers i.e. approximately 2.1 million two wheelers & on top of it nearly 0.9 million four wheelers are there in the city, thankfully not all the four wheelers comes on the road at a time or else can’t imagine the scene of the traffic if that happens! As still distances are manageable in Pune so more people are dependent on two wheeler rides & that’s another reason of maximum numbers of accident causalities too are in this city only; surely not a sign of healthy growth! Every one of us has to travel on some or other road in the city & we have our own experiences towards the travel but one thing is common, whomsoever I speak with each one is frustrated with the traffic problems, worried about their kids safety who uses two wheeler & is sure that nothing can be done with the traffic problem as no govt system is really concerned about this problem, is what common man feel!

On such back ground, I thought of sharing my experience or suggestion about my daily travel which as I mentioned above is via Baner road, a major link of west side, to none other than Hon Municipal Commissioner of PMC. There is nothing great in sharing, just common sense applied to what I have seen on the road.

Dear Sir,

Something about Baner road & traffic congestion on it...

1. First the road width shown in DP in itself is too narrow, it should have been at least 200 ft wide road considering it as a gate way to Pune from west side. Tomorrow even the proposed road from Mercedes show-room on highway to Hinjawadi IT Park is built then more the Baner road will be main connectivity from city to Hinjawadi & then the load will be tripled as of now. So make it 200 ft wide wherever possible right from now & make necessary changes in DP for future development.

2. We can plan parallel roads to the same on both sides connecting to service road of bypass to Baner road at least till Mahabaleshwar hotel chowk i.e. till Symantec. We can plan a road across hill from pan card club & connect it to Baner Pashn link road parallel to Ramnadi, so it will reduce load on Baner road right from Sadananad hotel at bypass.

3. Presently all the buildings along Baner road use their front margin for the occupants commercial use, remove every structure in front margin & use it for parking. Same thing is required to be done for the parking spaces shown in these buildings which are being used for other purposes. Restrict any new hotel/ restaurant permissions along the Baner road, fronting directly on the road as they are main traffic hurdles. Even think of revoking existing restaurants/eateries license after checking their parking arrangements! (Just a wild thought)

4. Major issue is diagonal parking along Baner road & then vehicles double parking. Make it pay & park at heavy rate at all hours of the day; it is a must keeping in mind importance of this gate way of the city. As well use full time police/traffic warden team always mobile in the stretch from Sadanand to National Society chowk. Create public parking lots at regular intervals along the lands adjoining Baner roads, which are still vacant, make immediate changes in DP right now for this. Timing of signals needs to be in proportionate to the vehicle density as well synchronizing of the signals along Baner road both ways is a must so the flow of traffic gets maintained.

5. Try to divert as many vehicles we can from Pashan exit at bypass towards university & destinations ahead; for that either make toll on Baner road or use Delhi idea, odd -even numbers using Baner road & Pashan road respectively for all days of week, going towards city center. Promote Kiwale BRT terminal route outlet for vehicles coming from Mumbai by expressway or Talegaon Chakan towards city center as many even doesn’t know such option is available.

6. Remove every puncture /crossing in the present dividers, so allowing U turns or crossing only at signals & develop parallel road from signal to signal lengths on both sides. For that make permanent dividers & with flower beds as right now there are no green cover all along or in between on Baner road making it extreme dry & heat island!

7. Think of a full length fly over from Sadanad to university chowk or Mahabaleshwar hotel chowk, like eastern free way from Chembur to Dmelo road in Mumbai, but that’s too long term solution, though we need to think of long term also!

8. Needless to say increase bus frequency with good quality buses running from university circle to Hinjawadi, & for that build underground parking lot for commuters’ right at any govt land near university circle, we can think of rural police open grounds for this.

Well, this may be about one Baner road but scene is near about same on all major roads of Pune & even in cities like Kolhapur or Nagpur too! Apart from above mentioned problems, there are few more such as auto rickshaws standing anywhere at their will, while waiting for the customer, so they blocks one lane of traffic. At the same time private cars also with driver in, keeps waiting on road in driving lane. Here I remember my first visit to Singapore, where I waved at one empty taxi (that’s another good signage system having an indicator light on, means taxi is empty & available; unlike here where we have to peep in the rickshaw to check whether its available or not) but the taxi didn’t stop & same thing repeated with few more taxis. I was wondering what’s wrong then a one passer by gentleman asked me that am I new in town? After getting reply as yes from me, he said here no taxi stops abruptly anywhere just because its empty, I will have to wait at designated taxi stop signage & there only they are allowed to stop or else heavy fine they have to pay! On this background look at our city, the auto rikshawalas stop at any moment when they see the prey, yes that’s right term than passenger; this abrupt stopping can even be in midway of traffic causing accidents not just traffic jam but who cares! All it needed is a mobile squad of traffic cops or wardens to move off such road blocker rickshaws as well private vehicles & make heavy fines, who will do it is the question!

The same problem is with Public Transport busses i.e. infamous PMT, now PMPML; they have bad habit of stopping right in middle of road where as there are designated markings for stopping of buses at the bus stops, causing chaos amongst the traffic & even making it a marathon task for the passengers of PMT to get in the bus through flowing traffic, again who cares as the PMPML administration don’t have a full time boss is the sad story so why get bothered with things like buses stopping in road! A simple solution can be having CC TV cameras on all bus stops & monitor the buses by keeping eye on such drivers! And why blame just PMT drivers or auto rickshawalas, even slightest reason of bruising of vehicles can cause the common driver of any private vehicle to stop in mid way & start an argument with other vehicle, without thinking that because of his ego entire traffic is blocked, such are our civic senses!

The footpaths as well so called cycle tracks are joke of the town, as there is board of cycle track so we know it’s a cycle track or else it carries everything but cycles is a fact! The outcome is cyclists as well pedestrians have no place but walk or paddle on main driving lanes, which again is reason of setting the traffic slow as well they expose themselves to danger of accidents too by  doing so! Conditions of roads is something I refrain myself of commenting on as so much has been written on this that there is no point in boring my readers with it! Though poor road condition does remains main cause for slowing down the traffic as you need not have to be very intelligent or great planner to tell that good roads keeps speed of traffic fast!

Considering the entire scene of the traffic in city it’s like opposite of the term “Win Win” situation in corporate world; i.e. its “Lose Lose” situation when its traffic! As we the citizens expects public bodies like Traffic Police or PMC to solve the traffic problem but at the same time it’s we the citizens only, who jumps the red signals, encroaches footpaths for our personal reasons, stops rickshaw, our cars or busses in mid-way & park vehicles under no parking signage; so it’s both sides of the coin which are responsible for the traffic mess we are suffering from! I really pity our so called Smartness as the city which can’t manage its own traffic is thinking of becoming Best City in Country, well if we are best with such scene on road than God save the others below in the list is all I can say!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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